Clues Scant In Death Of Vacationing Girl

June 2, 1986|By Peter Aronson, Staff Writer

A vacationing high school senior from Connecticut, missing from Fort Lauderdale in April and found dead three days later in a Delray Beach area canal, was probably murdered and someone other than the killer has information that could lead to an arrest.

That`s the theory of Fort Lauderdale Detective Phil Mundy, who since April 26, when Susan Jacques, 18, was reported missing, has been trying to unravel the mystery of how the attractive, blond-haired teen-ager from Trumbull, Conn., died on post-Spring Break vacation -- her first trip away from home.

Jacques` decomposed body was found on April 29 in a canal north of Atlantic Avenue, about one mile east of Florida`s Turnpike, west of Delray Beach. She was last seen alive at about 3:30 a.m. on April 26 by friends at the Mark 2100 Motor Hotel at 2100 N. Atlantic Blvd., Fort Lauderdale.

How Jacques traveled the 35 miles from downtown Fort Lauderdale to the remote area in western Palm Beach County remains a mystery. But Mundy is confident the case can be solved.

An autopsy by the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner`s Office did not reveal a cause of death because the body was too badly decomposed, but Mundy said he is 90 percent certain the young woman was murdered.

``Young girls just don`t end up in canals like that,`` said Mundy, a homicide detective for 10 years.

Although detectives have worked hundreds of hours on the case and still have virtually no leads, Mundy said he believes someone, somewhere, knows what happened and will step forward to tell police.

``I believe whoever put Susan Jacques in the water was either with someone else or has told someone else,`` Mundy said. ``But that`s mostly a gut feeling.``

Jacques, a senior at St. Joseph`s Catholic High School in Trumbull, arrived in Fort Lauderdale on April 18 with nine high school friends for a 10-day vacation. On Friday, April 25, at about 10 p.m., Jacques and her friends went to the Candy Store Lounge at the Trade Winds Hotel, One N. Atlantic Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, where they spent the evening ``drinking, dancing, socializing until the place closed at 2 a.m.,`` Mundy said.

Jacques and three of her friends then returned to the Mark 2100, where Jacques and her girlfriends were staying.

After wondering aloud where her other friends were, Jacques said she was going for a walk on the beach. It was about 3:30 a.m., and her friends would never see her alive again.

Mundy believes Jacques never went to the beach, but instead went to look for her friends, walking south along a dark, empty stretch of State Road A1A toward the Trade Winds.

There is an unconfirmed report Jacques was seen eating early that Saturday at a Howard Johnson`s restaurant north of the Trade Winds. An unknown woman told one of Jacques` friends that she saw Jacques talking to a man in the restaurant, but Mundy said attempts to find the woman have failed.

He also said none of the restaurant employees remembers seeing Jacques the night she disappeared.

Mundy and Palm Beach County Sheriff`s Detective John Strenges Jr., are investigating the case. Mundy recently spent two days in Trumbull interviewing Jacques` family and friends.

By all accounts, Jacques was a good student, a good daughter and a teen-ager not prone to getting in trouble. Mundy said her friends had virtually no ideas as to how she may have disappeared and added that he had no reason to doubt anything they said. By going to Trumbull, with a population of about 33,000 people, Mundy said he got insight into Jacques that may help explain her possible abduction and death.

``All of the kids gave me the impression that with Susan . . . it would not be beyond the realm of possibility that she would be offered a ride, make a decision quickly and voluntarily get into a car. Obviously, that`s not a good habit in Fort Lauderdale or anywhere,`` Mundy said.

What makes the case particularly difficult is that the autopsy gave virtually no clues. There is no indication she drowned. There was alcohol in her system, but an amount consistent with what her friends said she drank the night she disappeared, Mundy said. No traces of narcotics were found in her body, Mundy said. But the body was so badly decomposed -- police think the body was in the canal for three days -- that the toxicology tests are inconclusive.

``The cause of death is undetermined, pending further investigation,`` said Paul Friedman, chief of investigations for the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner`s Office.

Mundy has ruled out that Jacques died of natural causes or committed suicide. Mundy acknowledges there is a slight chance the death was accidental -- perhaps she voluntarily took a narcotic and died, he said.